The first thing that is going to change is the seeding. The process of re-seeding players has already started and is happening to place people in more accurate divisions based on their skill. This will be based on players’ preseason matchmaking rating, and players will only increase their Ranked Points into a new division. This re-seeding will not move players back at all, as if you have already surpassed where your preseason matchmaking rating would place you, you will remain exactly where you are.

To further understand the other changes, understanding the ranking process is necessary. This forum post goes into detail, but all you need to know is that there are two sides to deciding a player’s skill rating and where you will be placed in ranked play. There are two sides: Skill and Uncertainty. Skill is exactly as it sounds, with its value increasing or decreasing based on wins, losses, and match difficulty. Uncertainty is the other half in that everyone will start out with a high level of Uncertainty that will then gradually decrease as the system becomes more confident in understanding your skill.

Understanding that, Uncertainty in Season 1 has been reverted to the previous level it was in the preseason, including a new minimum Uncertainty to ensure your rating does not stagnate. This is intended to improve matchmaking quality, which was creating matches with a wider skill variance than Psyonix wanted.

Finally, Psyonix has re-enabled “Trending” for Season 1. Trending means that if you play matches above your division, you will gain more Ranked Points if you win and lose less Ranked Points if you lose. We already know that the Ranked Points you gain is based on match difficulty, but Trending is just another measure for players who have a higher skill rating than they have Ranked Points to place them where they should likely be.

To end it all, Psyonix said that they will be closely monitoring matchmaking and the Ranked Points System, implying that further changes could be seen in the future. They want to avoid situations where very small amounts of Ranked Points are awarded and avoid too many matches where the difference in skill is far too great.

What do you think of the changes to Rocket League Ranked Season 1? What do you think still needs to change?